By B Izzak

KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah separately received members of the new National Assembly office at Bayan Palace yesterday, headed by Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem. The Amir and Crown Prince urged cooperation between the Assembly and the government and called for strengthening democracy, respecting the constitution and implementing the law.

Present at the meeting along with Ghanem were Deputy Speaker Ahmad Al-Shuhoumi, Assembly Secretary Farz Al-Daihani, Assembly Supervisor Osama Al-Shaheen, head of the legislative and legal affairs committee Khaled Al-Enezi, head of the financial and economic affairs committee Ahmad Al-Hamad, head of the priorities committee Hesham Al-Saleh and Assembly Secretary General Allam Al-Kandari.

Meanwhile, 18 MPs yesterday submitted a new motion calling for setting up a parliamentary committee to investigate events at the opening session of the new Assembly, with the motion insisting that a series of constitutional, legal and moral violations had been committed. The motion calls on the investigation committee to probe the behavior of a section of the invited public, their insults of MPs and causing chaos. It also wants the panel to investigate employees at the Assembly secretariat to find how unofficial ballot papers for the speaker's election reached the hands of some MPs.

Also, MP Abdulkarim Al-Kandari submitted a draft law calling to organize the functions and the status of the chamber of commerce and industry. The bill calls to ban the chamber from interfering in politics and providing any aid to local or foreign political groups. Kandari wrote on Twitter that when politics interferes in commerce, "our funds will be at risk", adding that when a section of merchants benefits by crushing the middle class, "all citizens and the country will be at risk".